On the Astro Bots’ Turf
Now that search and web traffic is getting replaced by AI summaries and LLMs, earned media placements don’t hit quite the same way they used to.
So what’s a brand to do instead?
Post on Reddit, of course, so their content gets scraped and their brand gets recommended by AI chatbots.
404 Media reports that members of r/Biohackers, a subreddit devoted to biological optimization topics like “genetic engineering” and “experimental pharmacology,” recently placed a moratorium on new posts related to peptides and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
The reason for the ban, the moderators claim, is that companies in the space have been flooding the subreddit with comments and posts related to their peptide products.
Astroturfing on Reddit isn’t a new phenomenon, but AI has exacerbated the problem in several major ways. It not only makes scaling the practice much easier; it also changes the goals.
Rather than seeking more word-of-mouth buzz, for instance, it appears that agencies specializing in ranking on Reddit are now more focused on increasing brand visibility in AI overviews.
The same goes for AEO (or GEO)-focused vendors, which tout their ability to publish content using AI agents – including via Reddit posts.
[Editor’s note: After publication, Reddit contacted AdExchanger to push back on vendors claiming to be able to drive AI search citations by posting on Reddit. The company provided the following statement:
“There is no guarantee that what is on Reddit will make its way into LLMs, and we question the legitimacy of any provider suggesting they can,” a Reddit spokesperson said. “Our Public Content Policy sets rules on how third parties can use Reddit content – including preventing redditors from being spammed with inauthentic content – and generally prevents misuse and abuse. We have blocked data scrapers we don’t know or don’t have agreements with, and are always working to improve our detection of inauthentic content and accounts. We recently announced that any fishy automated accounts will be asked to verify their humanity.”]
Buyer Beware
The push for transparency is putting more scrutiny on principal-based buying, which is just a jargony term for when agencies resell inventory to clients while pocketing an undisclosed profit.
A recent report from the Association of National Advertisers suggests that principal media is on the rise, with many advertisers citing it as the top reason for their concerns about the lack of transparency they get from agencies.
One staunch hater of principal media is Jon Mandel, former CEO of WPP-owned media agency Mediacom, who was subject to intense pressure after whistleblowing about kickbacks in 2016. Nearly a decade later, the same financial incentives still exist but under a different name, Mandel tells Business Insider.
The growing obsession with ad performance is one reason why the business model behind principal media is thriving. Many CMOs accept the argument that this approach leads to better performance because it’s more efficient than marketers buying media themselves. But critics would say that agencies are incentivized to steer clients toward publisher inventory they’ve already locked in over what actually best suits a client’s objectives.
Mandel argues that marketers should push agencies to cough up more information about the inventory they’re securing, even if they stay tight-lipped about their profits.
He puts it this way: “If you’re a food company and you are getting raw ingredients, you may not be able to check the profit margin of the [supplier], but you have the right to check the quality.”
A (Personalized) Price To Pay
The cost of living is high and may be getting higher – but not for everyone.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission began digging into the practice of personalized pricing (also known as surveillance pricing), which involves offering the same products at different baseline prices depending on customer information like income or location.
The FTC found that intermediary firms, which it defines as “the middlemen hired by retailers that can algorithmically tweak and target their prices,” were working with more than 250 clients, suggesting that personalized pricing is on its way to becoming commonplace.
But retailers push back on this narrative. The National Retail Federation (NRF), for example, says there’s “no evidence any of its members are doing this” and notes that the practice is “counter to the industry’s basic business model,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
After all, personalized pricing can backfire in many ways, including inadvertently targeting race or ethnicity, since those often correlate with proxy characteristics like ZIP code.
And so any brand considering personalized pricing should be worried about alienating customers. “Without building customer trust,” said Jason Straczewski, the NRF’s group VP of government relations and political affairs, “you have nothing.”
But Wait! There’s More!
Tariffs forced Chinese retailer Temu to slash its US ad spend across every major social platform over the last year. [Digiday]
Meta will begin charging customers for access to its AI business agent. [TechCrunch]
Attendees of the World News Media Conference this week spent a lot of time debating about how AI fits into their business model. [Bloomberg]
Scott Pelley, who was fired from “60 Minutes” after a tense exchange with new boss Nick Bilton, claims that CBS News leadership instructed him to “inject falsehoods and bias” into his reporting. [The Guardian]
The EU Parliament is ditching Google for French search engine Qwant, citing privacy concerns. [Politico]
You’re Hired!
AI platform Cyabra hires David Low as CMO. [release]
Moburst hires Melissa Gruhin as VP of creative. [release]
KERV.ai appoints Joshua Koran to the role of chief product and technology officer. [release]
Brand performance company LoopMe hires for several new roles, including Courtney Howell as SVP of global partnerships, Maggie Wider Parker as VP of direct sales and Staci Kapnick as AVP of global revenue operations. [Mediashotz]
Update 6/5/26: This post was updated with a statement provided by Reddit regarding companies posting to its platform to drive AI search citations.
